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Songza now belongs to Google

Another music streaming service bites the dust. While you were sleeping, Google’s made a big play in developing its focus in the rapidly booming online music business – by acquiring Songza.

Some rumours of the buyout were circling the industry over the past few weeks, but the Internet search giant has now come forth to put all that speculation to rest.

Sources claim that the purchase is expected to be around the US$15 million mark, significantly lower than the US$3 billion (S$3.8 billion) Apple forked out for its possession of Beats. But Google has yet to confirm this speculation.

Although, Google did mention that the reason for the buyout is to beef up its existing Play Music streaming service in the coming months. We expect Google to also infuse some of Songza’s curated music list functionality to other areas of the company, such as YouTube.

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Google's on the fast music lane

Songza now belongs to Google

This move could potentially put Google ahead of other players in the music streaming game, for not many music services enhance their music experience using human curation (Spotify, Pandora, and some other players use algorithms).

Not forgetting the issue of data too – Google’s now got access to Songza’s records around what people listen to at particular times of the day, relative to the weather, or even depending on a user’s activities and locations.

This could eventually build up to become a massive project for Google – can you imagine if this information is fed to Google Now and it starts to automatically play particular songs depending on where you are or the weather.

That’s plenty of expectations from us for the future; for now, the core of Songza’s service will remain unchanged.

You might also want to keep your fingers crossed for some Songza subscription deals in the coming days. Although chances of it happening are slim, you never know, it might happen – we did live to see Beats Music drop its subscription price after Apple acquired it.